If you are a Malayali like my mother you probably know about the “Chorunnu Function”. Match ado about nothing.

So what if I was having solid food for the first time? Why would you want to call all your relatives and tell them: “Hey look! My daughter was stupid enough to be on breast milk till now and is starting on solid food today!”

It is embarrassing to say the least. I am already six months, and it is my parents fault that they haven’t been giving me solids. But that’s not how they put it when our relatives ask: “Still on breast milk?”

“Ohh yeah. She doesn’t eat solids yet.”

Anyway, the ceremony of Chorunnu was Malayali style. Anu Bhaiya, my Rema Valliamma and Sudhir valliachan, my grand parents and Anu bhaiya’s paternal grandparents had come down to Gurgaon for the function.

I was made to sit on my father’s lap and then they fed me rice. If you haven’t had rice before let me tell you that it has no taste. Maybe that’s why my parents mix it with a curry when they have it. My father also placed a pinch of salt on my tongue. Yikees! Talk of traditions turning into tortures.

And then everybody fed me rice, as if I was some small girl.

The only good part of the ceremony was when in the end, Rema Valliamma and Sudhir valliachan asked Anu Bhaiya to put a gold necklace around my neck.

For some reason I had an instant liking for Anu Bhaiya. The yellow metal glistened in the son. Is it a costly gift? I need to find out.